BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: Senior lawyer and social activist Shanti Bhushan has expressed his willingness to defend arrested Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in the Supreme Court if the latter approached him.
“If that case comes to the Supreme Court, if Sanjiv Bhatt needs to hire a lawyer, and if he approaches me, then I will defend him against Gujarat government. We have been opposing communalism. We have always opposed Narendra Modi’s and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) line of thinking,” Bhushan told reporters here.
He further rubbished claims that he was working to help the BJP or the RSS.
“If anybody says that we are helping BJP or RSS is completely wrong. It is complete lie. We should not take cognizance of it,” added Bhushan.
Bhatt, who had accused Narendra Modi of misusing the State machinery during the post-Godhra riots, was arrested on September 30 in connection with a complaint regarding coercion of a subordinate.
He was arrested on a complaint filed by constable K D Pant, who worked as a subordinate with Bhatt in the state Intelligence Bureau.
According to Pant’s complaint, Bhatt had forced him to file an affidavit in which Modi had been named.
Bhatt has been locked in a public confrontation with Modi after he had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing the Chief Minister of complicity in the 2002 riots.